OK, sifted through our pictures and think I have a few decent ones to share. Sorry about any duplicates to what others have already posted...
So, the ride started at the Kittery Trading Post:
Bike lineup at the KTP while everyone took a quick look in the post and used the bathrooms:
First stop was the Cape Neddick Nubble Lighthouse. My ob-pic of that:
Cool mansion/hotel near the cape
View from Cape Neddick:
Then we went in search of chowdah. I didn't take any pics of all the eating. But there was a clear winner in the Chowder ratings, at least in my opinion. Participant poll to be posted up soon.
Going off of the GPS-track to get to Kittery Point was intentional so that we could ride by the shipyard entrance and do the full length of Rte 103. I made a few little changes top the GPS routes after I first posted them up and didn't want folks to have to redownload and mess around with them. They were only minor changes.
But somewhere along the line the waypoint for Alisson's restaurant got removed and we blew right past it. I realized my mistake right after we turned up Ocean Ave out of dock square, but figured that we would just have lunch at the next chowder stop down the road instead. So CJ, if you are reading this, we never even fullfilled the original reason of this ride, duplicating your trip to Alisson's for chowdah!
Mea culpa! :blink: But folks did sample plenty of chowders throughout the weekend.
Here's the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse, one of the two lights at Two Lights:
A small beach at Two Lights:
Wild flowering bushes at Two Lights:
Some odd colored lichen was growing on the ledge along the beach there. Reminds me of the color of MEM's riding jacket... eh?
A cool looking driftwood stump on the beach
And then we made our way around the other side of the cape to the Portland Head lighthouse in Fort Williams Park:
While we were there a good sized container ship moseyed on up the channel:
View from the Headland:
Working boat goes by
I have no pictures of the city of Portland. If we are to ever do this ride again I would suggest detouring around it completely at all costs, at least if the time of day is the same. Who knew that rush hour starts at 4PM in Portland? The eastern prom was nice enough, and the ride up through Falmouth was nice, but not worth the traffic to get over the bridge from South Portland to Commercial St.
But we managed to get ourselves up to the Harraseeket in Freeport for an early dinner, once we ditched that troublesome Albany couple, the ones that stayed at the "alternate" hotel...
(next time I'm getting everyone's cell phone number at the start).
Day 2:
Boothbay Harbor was quite beautiful. Click the panorama view below for the full sized view in new window
Then after a little exploring of the Boothbay lesser known roads, (hey it was only 3 dead-ends) we looped west around the Damariscotta River and then back east again to Pemaquid Point:
And then on up to Rockland:
The Boathouse Restaurant was a delicious lunch repast recommended by Karl (he's not such a Baddog!). Did anyone else notice that all the waitresses were rather attractive? No, I didn't think so... The owner must have some selective hiring practices in a, uhm, non-traditional way. Sorry, no pictures of the wait staff. I was 2-up!
Fort Point Lighthouse and the old fort ruins:
Closer view of the light:
... and some may not have known that this was the bell signal tower off to the side:
I could sense that by this time that a lot of folks were wondering "Are we there yet?"
Luckily we were pretty close, and a short ride up Rte 3 through Ellsworth got us to the Pot of Gold at the end of the trail: Acadia.
Pics of that to follow.
So, the ride started at the Kittery Trading Post:
Bike lineup at the KTP while everyone took a quick look in the post and used the bathrooms:
First stop was the Cape Neddick Nubble Lighthouse. My ob-pic of that:
Cool mansion/hotel near the cape
View from Cape Neddick:
Then we went in search of chowdah. I didn't take any pics of all the eating. But there was a clear winner in the Chowder ratings, at least in my opinion. Participant poll to be posted up soon.
Going off of the GPS-track to get to Kittery Point was intentional so that we could ride by the shipyard entrance and do the full length of Rte 103. I made a few little changes top the GPS routes after I first posted them up and didn't want folks to have to redownload and mess around with them. They were only minor changes.
But somewhere along the line the waypoint for Alisson's restaurant got removed and we blew right past it. I realized my mistake right after we turned up Ocean Ave out of dock square, but figured that we would just have lunch at the next chowder stop down the road instead. So CJ, if you are reading this, we never even fullfilled the original reason of this ride, duplicating your trip to Alisson's for chowdah!
Mea culpa! :blink: But folks did sample plenty of chowders throughout the weekend.
Here's the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse, one of the two lights at Two Lights:
A small beach at Two Lights:
Wild flowering bushes at Two Lights:
Some odd colored lichen was growing on the ledge along the beach there. Reminds me of the color of MEM's riding jacket... eh?
A cool looking driftwood stump on the beach
And then we made our way around the other side of the cape to the Portland Head lighthouse in Fort Williams Park:
While we were there a good sized container ship moseyed on up the channel:
View from the Headland:
Working boat goes by
I have no pictures of the city of Portland. If we are to ever do this ride again I would suggest detouring around it completely at all costs, at least if the time of day is the same. Who knew that rush hour starts at 4PM in Portland? The eastern prom was nice enough, and the ride up through Falmouth was nice, but not worth the traffic to get over the bridge from South Portland to Commercial St.
But we managed to get ourselves up to the Harraseeket in Freeport for an early dinner, once we ditched that troublesome Albany couple, the ones that stayed at the "alternate" hotel...
(next time I'm getting everyone's cell phone number at the start).
Day 2:
Boothbay Harbor was quite beautiful. Click the panorama view below for the full sized view in new window
Then after a little exploring of the Boothbay lesser known roads, (hey it was only 3 dead-ends) we looped west around the Damariscotta River and then back east again to Pemaquid Point:
And then on up to Rockland:
The Boathouse Restaurant was a delicious lunch repast recommended by Karl (he's not such a Baddog!). Did anyone else notice that all the waitresses were rather attractive? No, I didn't think so... The owner must have some selective hiring practices in a, uhm, non-traditional way. Sorry, no pictures of the wait staff. I was 2-up!
Fort Point Lighthouse and the old fort ruins:
Closer view of the light:
... and some may not have known that this was the bell signal tower off to the side:
I could sense that by this time that a lot of folks were wondering "Are we there yet?"
Luckily we were pretty close, and a short ride up Rte 3 through Ellsworth got us to the Pot of Gold at the end of the trail: Acadia.
Pics of that to follow.